Explanation:
Grand spiral galaxies
often seem to get all the glory.
Their young, blue star clusters and pink star forming regions
along sweeping
spiral arms
are guaranteed to attract attention.
But small irregular galaxies form stars too, like
NGC
4449, about 12 million light-years distant.
Less than 20,000 light-years across, the small island universe is
similar in size, and often
compared
to our Milky Way's satellite
galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).
This remarkable
Hubble Space Telescope close-up of the
well-studied
galaxy was reprocessed to highlight the telltale reddish
glow of hydrogen gas.
The glow traces NGC 4449's widespread star forming regions, some
even larger than those in the LMC,
with enormous interstellar arcs and bubbles blown by short-lived,
massive stars.
NGC 4449 is a member of a
group
of galaxies found in the constellation Canes Venatici.
Interactions with the nearby
galaxies
are thought to have influenced star formation in NGC 4449.
